It’s been three years since the passing of Alex Tawanda Magaisa .A lawyer, academic, reformist, and fearless public intellectual. For many Zimbabweans scattered across borders and barricades, his death on June 5, 2022, felt like the silencing of one of the few voices that truly spoke for them , not above them, not beyond them, but with them.
Magaisa’s pen was sharp, but never cruel. His thoughts, often poured into his beloved “Big Saturday Read” blog, became a ritual for thousands every weekend. Whether breaking down a convoluted court judgment or exposing authoritarian overreach with biting clarity, Magaisa gave people not only the analysis they needed , but the dignity they were so often denied.
A Mind for the Law, A Heart for the People
To merely call him a constitutional lawyer is to do him a disservice. Yes, he taught at the University of Kent. Yes, he served as legal adviser to the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai during Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity. But Alex’s power was not in title, it was in trust.
He was trusted because he never let law become a cage for the people. He used it as a torchlight , illuminating dark corners of injustice, reminding Zimbabweans of what freedom ought to look like. His writings translated complex governance into plain truths, restoring a sense of ownership over public affairs.
He didn’t just write about rights .He made people feel they had them.
Gandamasungo: The Final Journey
I still remember June 28, 2022, when we carried his body back to his rural home in Gandamasungo, Njanja. It was a journey of silence, tears, and memories. We had travelled together before on protest trails, on long midnight calls planning public education forums but this was the longest and most painful journey of them all.
We wept not just for the man, but for what he represented: decency, clarity, and hope in a system designed to crush all three.
Legacy Carved in Courage
Magaisa did not seek fame. He certainly did not seek fear. But both came in abundance , the former from a grateful public; the latter from a paranoid regime. He received threats. He was followed. He knew the costs. Still, he wrote.
Three years on, the pages he left behind are still read. The questions he asked still haunt our politics. The standards he set of integrity, of reason, of honour remain aspirational.
What Now?
Alex is gone. But his courage must not die with him. In every young Zimbabwean who posts a thread explaining the constitution, in every diaspora parent teaching their child about 2008, in every journalist who dares to ask hard questions ,Alex lives on.
His was not a life of convenience. It was a life of consequence.
And that, perhaps, is the greatest tribute of all.
Rest in power, Big Brother. The struggle endures , but so does your voice.
